Posted on 09/27/2025 6:05:33 AM PDT by fidelis
“Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.” But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying. Luke 9:44–45
This is the second time that Jesus predicts His coming passion to His Apostles. After telling them that He will be handed over, the Gospel relates that “they did not understand this saying.” It also states that “they were afraid to ask him about this saying.” Why did they not understand, and why were they afraid to ask Jesus about His coming passion?
The Apostles were deeply attached to our Lord, both on a spiritual level and also through their affections. And this is good. But sometimes our affections can cloud our thinking and make it difficult to understand the deeper spiritual realities in life. Though our affections are natural, they must always be directed by the will of God. For example, if we were to try to understand Jesus’ affections, we’d have to conclude that He both spiritually and affectionately desired to lay down His life for the salvation of souls in accord with the will of the Father. He not only chose this with His will, but He also desired it in His affections, because His affections were perfectly ordered.
The Apostles, however, were unable to understand that Jesus had to lay down His life, be rejected, suffer and die, in part because they were very attached to Jesus in an emotional and affectionate way. So in this instance, their human love and attachment to Jesus hindered their ability to understand the greater spiritual good of Jesus laying down His life.
Consider, also, our Blessed Mother. How would she have reacted to Jesus saying that He had to be handed over, be rejected, suffer and die? Though this would have grieved her with a holy sorrow, the perfection of her human nature would have led her to not only understand and accept this deep spiritual truth, but she would have also desired this to happen within her affections because she perfectly desired the fulfillment of the will of the Father. There would have been no conflict within her between the will of the Father and what she desired.
In our own lives, we will often tend to struggle in the same way that the Apostles struggled. When faced with some challenging cross in life, a cross that the Father calls us to embrace freely, we will often find that our affections resist. When this happens, we become confused and even fearful of the future. Thus, the only way to conquer fear is to work to surrender every emotion, every affection and every human attachment over to the will of the Father so that His will is all we desire with every power of our soul.
Reflect, today, upon the interior struggle of these Apostles as they came face-to-face with this the second time Jesus began to prepare them to accept, understand, choose and desire His passion. Consider the interior struggle they went through at that time and even as they saw this unfold. Eventually they understood. Eventually all fear vanished. And eventually they affectionately rejoiced in Jesus’ sacrifice. But it took much time and much surrender. Reflect upon those ways our Lord is inviting you to choose His Cross in your life. Where you see your affections resisting, try to surrender, pray for understanding and seek the courage you need to desire His Cross with all your soul.
My revealing Lord, You opened Your divine heart to Your Apostles and invited them to understand and choose Your suffering and death. And though they hesitated and struggled, You continued to invite them to embrace the Father’s will. Give me the grace I need, dear Lord, to embrace every spiritual truth first and foremost and to allow that Truth to free me from fear and fill me with the gift of understanding. Jesus, I trust in You.
Please keep in mind that this is a Catholic Caucus/Devotional thread for the purpose of prayerful reflection on the Sacred Scriptures and is closed to debate of any kind. Per FR policy on Religion Caucus threads, off-topic, argumentative, and abusive comments are not allowed and will be submitted to the Mods for deletion. Thanks, and God bless you.
The Month of September is Dedicated to Devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows
“And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:34-35)
Pope Leo XIV’s prayer intentions for the month of September, 2025:
For our relationship with all of creation
Let us pray that, inspired by Saint Francis, we might experience our interdependence with all creatures who are loved by God and worthy of love and respect.
First Reading:
From: Zechariah 2:1-5, 10-13 (RSVCE = 2:5-9, 14-15a NAB)
Third vision: The measurer
---------------------------------------
[1] And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand! [2] Then I said, "Where are you going?" And he said to me, "To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its breadth and what is its length." [3] And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him, [4] and said to him, "Run, say to that young man, 'Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and cattle in it. [5] For I will be to her a wall of fire round about, says the Lord, and I will be the glory within her.'"
[10] Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for lo, I come and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord. [11] And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in the midst of you. and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. [12] And the Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem." [13] Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord; for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.
*************************************************************
Commentary:
2:1-13. What the prophet now sees and hears concerns the city of Jerusalem. It is going to be remodeled as an open city, without walls; its defense will be provided by God himself and therefore more people will be able to live there. The man with the measuring line is an angel, as are the other two figures mentioned. The idea of measuring the city in order to rebuild it is also found in Ezekiel 40-42 and Jeremiah 31:38-40 and, later, Revelation 11:1.
The vision is followed by an oracle (vv. 6-10) in which the Lord speaks through the angel. He invites the Jews to leave Babylon and return to the holy land. This is a call that is also found in Isaiah and Jeremiah (cf. Is 48:20; Jer 50:8; 51:6). It could be that some were reluctant to move. God promises that in Judah they will be safe from other nations because they are his beloved people, the “apple of his eye” (v. 8), and his angel will defend them. Moreover, he will settle there, and many nations will become his people (vv. 10-11).
Presence of the Lord, security against enemies and a way for the nations to become people of God -- these are the features that Judah and Jerusalem will have following the return from exile. In this sense, they prefigure the Church. Commenting on v. 4, St Jerome points out: “Reading in a spiritual sense, all of these things are to be found in the Church, which is "without walls", or, as the Septuagint puts it, "katakarpos"; that is, filled with an abundance of fruit and a great multitude of men and asses [...]. The men and the asses [cattle, animals] stand for the two peoples, the Jews and the Gentiles; those who came to faith in Christ through the fulfillment of the Law are called men; we, however, who were idolatrous and lived as though in a wilderness, being far from the Law, and alone, because of our distance from the prophets who suffered, are the asses [...j. But these animals hear the voice of the good shepherd, and know him, and they follow him” ("Commentarii in Zachariam", 2, 4).
2:10. This call for rejoicing, similar to that made by the prophet Zephaniah (cf. Zeph 3:14) and one made later (9:9), is repeated in the angel Gabriel’s greeting to the Blessed Virgin when he tells her that she is to conceive the Messiah (cf. Lk 1:28). That event will truly bring about what is said here, for Mary is “the mother of him in whom ‘the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily’ (Col 2:9)” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 722). John Paul II sees Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer, prefigured in the title “daughter of Zion” found here: “Her presence in the midst of Israel -- a presence so discreet as to pass almost unnoticed by the eyes of her contemporaries -- shone very clearly before the Eternal One, who had associated this hidden ‘daughter of Sion’ (cf. Zeph 3:14: Zeph 2:10) with the plan of salvation embracing the whole history of humanity” ("Redemptoris Mater”, 3).
2:13. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2143, interprets the silence as one "of loving adoration". This is the attitude that all will have when they see what God will do for Judah and Jerusalem; for Christians, it is the attitude they will have towards the incarnation, passion, death and resurrection of our Lord and towards what God does for his Church.
----------------------------
Gospel Reading:
From: Luke 9:43b-45
Second Prophecy of the Passion
------------------------------
[43b] But while they were all marvelling at everything He (Jesus) did, He said to His disciples, [44] "Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men." [45] But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this saying.
****************************************************
Commentary:
44. Christ predicts His passion and death a number of times. Initially He does so in veiled terms (John 2:19; Luke 5:35) to the crowd; and later, much more explicitly, to His disciples (Luke 9:22), though they fail to understand His words, not because what He says is not clear, but because they do not have the right dispositions. St. John Chrysostom comments: "Let no one be scandalized by this imperfection in the Apostles; for the Cross had not yet been reached nor the grace of the Spirit given" ("Hom. on St. Matthew", 65).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
